


Scars

by CatgirlTheCrazy



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, Morning Cuddles, Romance, Scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 11:29:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11417016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatgirlTheCrazy/pseuds/CatgirlTheCrazy
Summary: Every scar tells a story. That doesn't mean the story is particularly dramatic.





	Scars

“Darling one, how did you get your scar?”

They were lying in bed, on one of their rare days off, cuddling in the blissful aftermath of their love making. Liz looked up and blinked at Jaal stupidly. “My what?”

He indicated his own cheek. “Here.”

Self-consciously, Liz held her hand up to her face, feeling the angry red gouge. Really, she should have expected this. Scars by their nature implied a story, and the angara liked a good story as much as any Milky Way species.

Jaal misinterpreted her lack of immediate response. “I'm sorry. Was that too personal?”

In spite of the sincerity of the question, Liz laughed. After sex, the idea that anything could be too personal between them anymore felt a little odd. “No, it's not too personal, just not something I talk about much.” She paused, then added, “If we didn't know each other as well as we do, then yeah, it would have been rude. At least for humans, anyway. Dunno about other species. For krogan, I'm pretty sure asking about scars is another kind of flirting.”

Jaal's chuckles were deep and full, and Liz enjoyed the way they vibrated against her face as she nestled against his chest. “Then I will have to be careful asking Drack about his scars. I would not wish him to misinterpret me.”

Liz laughed, and they lay comfortably for a time. “I tripped.”

“Pardon?”

“I was at a dig site when I tripped and faceplanted right into a sharp rock. That's how I got my scar.”

“That's… Hmm.”

“Embarrassing? Anticlimactic?”

“Yes.”

Liz laughed harder. Jaal's sometimes blunt honesty could be charming. “I know, right? Who gets a scar like that just from tripping? We fought off batarian pirates a week later, and I wanted to let my friends back home think I got it from that. But Scott saw straight through it and got the real story out of me.”

Lazily, Liz traced one finger down the side of Jaal's face. She liked the feel of it: his surprisingly smooth skin, the tingle of his bioelectricity, the contours of his skin folds. All the things that made him both unforgettably nonhuman and yet dearly familiar. 

When her fingers reached a familiar gap, she stopped. Longer and deeper than the souvenir from Akksul. It didn't feel like a bullet wound, though she's no expert on angaran medicine. “What about this scar?”

“Mmm. That is from a challyrion.”

Liz paused mood stifle. “You mean those nasty cloaking predator things from Havarl?”

“Them, yes.”

“Yikes.” They lay in silence for a minute. Liz waited for the rest of the story, but it never came. She poked him in the side. “There's got to be more to it than that. Did it ambush you while you were out for midnight stroll? Or were you defending an orphanage from kett raiders? C'mon, gimme the story!”

“It is not so dramatic as that,” Jaal laughed. “But very well, I will tell you. When I was young, a kett ship crashed not far from our house. I thought to prove my bravery by salvaging from it, so I stole one of my mother's guns and snuck out in the middle of the night.”

“You got your scar fighting kett?” Liz asked, momentarily forgetting what he'd said about predators.

“Hardly. I was not halfway there when the challyrion ambushed me. I was so excited thinking how my family would praise me when I returned, that I forgot to keep watch. It burst from nowhere, and tackled me to the ground, tearing out the side of my face. It would have killed me if one of my older sisters, Zelip, had not followed me and wrestled the creature off me.”

Liz mentally rifled through the images of the many, many angara she'd met at Jaal's house. “Which one is Zelip again?”

Jaal yawned. “My second oldest sister. She lives on Voeld now. You haven't met her yet.”

“Well remind me to send her a fruit basket or something for saving your life. She must have been relieved to have caught up with you in time.”

“Relieved? Probably. Mostly I remember her shouting at me for being such a fool the entire walk back. She made sure to tell the whole story to my mothers, so they could shout at me further.”

“Huh. I didn't realize angara families could be such hardasses,” Liz remarked.

“When our children behave as stupidly as I did, we are. If Zelip had not found me when she did, I might have been lost forever, like my father. I'm sure that's what our mothers feared when they found me gone. Their anger was born of love.”

“...huh.” Liz thought about her own family. She'd visited home on shore leave not a month after her own accident, and her mother had clucked and fretted over the fresh and angry looking injury. Her father had merely grunted and not looked up from his AI research. Later, Liz learned that Alec had gotten the story from her commanding officer weeks before. Knowing her dad, he probably hadn't seen much point in expressing concern once he knew she'd never been in real danger.

Still. He could have said  _ something.  _ “You know Jaal, there are times where I seriously envy you.”

Jaal murmured wordlessly, but said nothing. Then, “You know, or stories aren't that different.”

“How so?”

“Both our scars came from moments of foolishness.”

Liz snorted. “Hardly. You at least got a valuable life lesson out of yours. All I got was, ‘Don't be such a klutz next time, Liz.’ Yours is _ way _ better.”

Jaal frowned. “It is a competition? Is this a human thing?”

Liz opened her mouth, then closed it. “Yeah, kind of, but now that you mention it, it's kind of stupid.” She sat up and stretched. “Come on. Let's go make breakfast.”


End file.
